Somebody Had to Start the UTEP Gamethread

[CrimsonNBlue]

So thoughts on Sprint Center game: I am auto biased b/c having a KU game I can walk to is an immediate point in favor for it. Guessing very few on here have had that luxury.

There were more than enough people last night to make it a good atmosphere, and really, it wasn't that much different than a boring AFH game, like Tarleton State that I attended this year. But, the acoustics are entirely different.

But, KU, do yourselves some favors:

- The biggest batch of open seats were in the lower bowl area where the season ticket holders are. Why aren't the season ticket holders using their tickets?

- I think part of that reason is moving the game from Saturday to Tuesday. Why?

- The general public interest has also declined on this game with moving the game to Tuesday.

- That also affected student attendance which was the lowest I have ever seen at Sprint. Its finals week--which is a good time to have a KC game, but make it Saturday after so students will go (this game is also part of the student package)

- And the obvious: the opponent. No one says anything about the atmosphere for the Big 12 tournament. No one said anything about atmosphere for the KU-Mizzou scrimmage held there 4 years back. We need another team there with a pulse. Stop playing UTEP and stop playing the CBE where no good opponents will come if Kansas is in it. Get creative and get a good east coast team to come in.

[jfish26]

i think the difference this year with Harris is that we have so many other weapons offensively that we don’t need any scoring from him so long as he’s doing the other things

we didn’t have that luxury with MG…him not scoring put the team in a much bigger whole than Harris not scoring does

Obviously everyone's mileage varies here, but I still hate what it does to our spacing. I think we have to be prepared to sacrifice some defense for offense if we have those games where everything is just muddy on offense.

[Deleted User 863]

I think good teams would probably rather get the AFH experience. And historically we have had some non con duds at Sprint where we take a bad L, so i have no issue with a cupcake there.

I have been to maybe 5 games at Sprint. Haven't done big 12 tournament which i need to do. I don't hate it, but AFH ruins every other venue for me.

I have always enjoyed the bar hopping/eating before and after sprint games. That's the biggest positive for me.

[CrimsonNBlue]

Playing Harris so much is absolutely going to bite us in the ass later down the road. He's doing enough in the halfcourt to help the flow and spacing, but last night he had two open threes that should/would have been taken by another player and we instead got into a late shot clock situation. Those are going to hurt.

But, Yesefu and Wilson were pretty damn disappointing last night considering the opportunity the game presented. They're thinking too much.

[Deleted User 89]

i agree there’s a chance, but it’s definitely not absolute

[Deleted User 863]

i think the difference this year with Harris is that we have so many other weapons offensively that we don’t need any scoring from him so long as he’s doing the other things

we didn’t have that luxury with MG…him not scoring put the team in a much bigger whole than Harris not scoring does

Obviously everyone's mileage varies here, but I still hate what it does to our spacing. I think we have to be prepared to sacrifice some defense for offense if we have those games where everything is just muddy on offense.

The problem is we don't have a better option on the bench. JW is next on the depth chart and his shooting hasn't been much better than Harris. When he's in our spacing isn't much better.

I am not seeing this bad spacing when Harris is in as much this year. Remy Och and CB are still finding driving lanes and open shots. Dave is still getting enough space to catch post passes before spazzing out and fumbling it out of bounds.

I was absolutely 100% anti Harris 4 weeks ago. But he's not hurting our offense this year.

[CrimsonNBlue]

I think good teams would probably rather get the AFH experience. And historically we have had some non con duds at Sprint where we take a bad L, so i have no issue with a cupcake there.

There are several ways to get it done. Villanova routinely plays off campus against good teams. Gonzaga, obviously, too. Duke plays home games in MSG. And on and on. It just takes creativity.


I am also in favor of playing in NBA-type arenas during the regular season to change up atmosphere and get the team familiar with those type of venues.

[Deleted User 863]

I think good teams would probably rather get the AFH experience. And historically we have had some non con duds at Sprint where we take a bad L, so i have no issue with a cupcake there.

There are several ways to get it done. Villanova routinely plays off campus against good teams. Gonzaga, obviously, too. Duke plays home games in MSG. And on and on. It just takes creativity.


I am also in favor of playing in NBA-type arenas during the regular season to change up atmosphere and get the team familiar with those type of venues.

I wonder if we are trying to negotiate these as nuetral site games with some of the better programs even though it isn't truly a neutral site unless we are playing Mizzou?

[CrimsonNBlue]

Dave is still getting enough space to catch post passes before spazzing out and fumbling it out of bounds.

Dave has been better 2 games in a row now, but I can't ever forgive him for boning that behind-the-back assist by Remy last night. That's sportscenter.

[Deleted User 863]

Dave is still getting enough space to catch post passes before spazzing out and fumbling it out of bounds.

Dave has been better 2 games in a row now, but I can't ever forgive him for boning that behind-the-back assist by Remy last night. That's sportscenter.

Oh i know. My god. And then after he fumbles it he complains to the refs hoping for a foul call iirc.

He spends more time shrugging at refs and looking over at Self shrugging than any player i remember.

[jfish26]

How goddamned pissed would you be if you played for UTEP. You could have played at Allen Fieldhouse, and instead you played at a half-empty Crypto.com Center-lite.

[pdub]

KU should just stop playing there unless it's the B12 tournament.

[ousdahl]

Or at the very least, schedule a higher profile opponent on a weekend, not a cupcake on a Tuesday during finals week.

What are we even doing playing during finals week? Isn’t the team normally off? You know, to like study and take tests and otherwise pretend they really are student ath-o-letes?

[Deleted User 863]

Now that they don't have to pretend to be students we might as well play a game or 2 during finals.

[CrimsonNBlue]

Or at the very least, schedule a higher profile opponent on a weekend, not a cupcake on a Tuesday during finals week.

Also exacerbates the poor TV viewing experience. ESPN+ is overall a good thing but the broadcast quality on everything compared to CBS or ESPN is a joke.

[pdub]

We have the greatest college basketball venue in sports.
If we're going to play a higher profile opponent, schedule it there.
Not at some dark cavern with pink on the court.

[Sparko]

I do wonder why AFH is neglected so often. Needs to change.

[CrimsonNBlue]

I do wonder why AFH is neglected so often. Needs to change.

We have so much tied up in contractual games and tournaments (we need to get out of the dumbass Big East challenge), but there will always be a minimum of 16 AFH games per season + KC. The KUAC budget demands it. There's very little wiggle room on scheduling, which is why we have a ton of buy-games (or bye-games, amiright?).

[Deleted User 863]

We have the greatest college basketball venue in sports.
If we're going to play a higher profile opponent, schedule it there.
Not at some dark cavern with pink on the court.

This.

[ousdahl]

I’d like to hear more about this dark cavern with pink on the…nm